Do you need more than 500 clinical experience hours?

[frafa]

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Hi all,

Longtime reader, first time poster here. From what I have read on reddit and on here ~500 (maybe less?) is a good amount of clinical experience to have, and while having more will never hurt, 500 is a solid amount.

I'm asking this because this year, my sophomore summer, I declined an electrophysiology clinical trial research/assistant opportunity (would mostly be doing data stuff and talking with patients who try the new treatment method, its mostly research and computer stuff) in favour of a medical assistant position this summer that would give me 480 hours. I had 0, so I definitely need it this summer, but for my junior summer, would it be worth going back and getting more clinical experience, or would it be more beneficial to my application to add more research hours after hitting this "baseline". By then, I'll have ~500 clinical experience and ~500/600 wet bench research so I'm not sure what to put more hours into.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Numbers are nice but we need quality. What did you learn about medicine as a daily profession? What were the good and bad things about the culture or lifestyle that you feel you can do this for 30 years or so?

Certainly you need more than zero. I have generally suggested 150 hours minimum. So 500... sure.

 

[frafa]

Thanks for your response. I know quality is important, and I hope to make the most of all my experiences. That being said, would I then be better off later gaining more clinical experience or clinical research? I'm hoping to apply to more research-heavy schools.

 

[LizzyM]

As much as I like clinical research experience (collecting data from patients), most research-heavy med school adcoms value bench research experience. Often it is not so much the title as what you actually did that carries the day.